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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6023989" data-attributes="member: 6669384">In my opinion, the RP of a situation should give circumstance modifiers to the dice roll, not replace it.I really want to encourage my players to get involved in the story, in their characters, but I have to acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable or even good at persuasion.&nbsp; We had a player join our group briefly, and his Rogue was trying to steal a horse.&nbsp; It started to make a fuss, and the player said, &quot;I stuff some jerky in his mouth.&quot;, meaning to give it a treat.Horses don't eat meat, a fact that the player either didn't know or never considered.&nbsp; I didn't declare his effort a flat failure, I just asked for the Handle Animals check.&nbsp; I presumed that his character, who had spent points in skills, might well know more than the player in this situation.&nbsp; (Note that I would have called for that check no matter what he tried to feed the horse.)Well, it turns out our would be horse thief had no points in Handle Animal, and none in Ride either.&nbsp; So the entire scene was an exercise in bad professional decisions, and his dice were as bad as his skill points.Had he had a good idea I would have given him a +2 on his roll.&nbsp; As it was I didn't have to bother with the -2.The point is, I don't require that a player have a Red Cross certification in First Aid to make a Heal check.&nbsp; I don't require that they be good actors or persuasive speakers to use a Diplomacy skill.&nbsp; They don't need to know a thing about horses to use Handle Animal or Ride.But it helps.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 6023989, member: 6669384"] In my opinion, the RP of a situation should give circumstance modifiers to the dice roll, not replace it. I really want to encourage my players to get involved in the story, in their characters, but I have to acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable or even good at persuasion. We had a player join our group briefly, and his Rogue was trying to steal a horse. It started to make a fuss, and the player said, "I stuff some jerky in his mouth.", meaning to give it a treat. Horses don't eat meat, a fact that the player either didn't know or never considered. I didn't declare his effort a flat failure, I just asked for the Handle Animals check. I presumed that his character, who had spent points in skills, might well know more than the player in this situation. (Note that I would have called for that check no matter what he tried to feed the horse.) Well, it turns out our would be horse thief had no points in Handle Animal, and none in Ride either. So the entire scene was an exercise in bad professional decisions, and his dice were as bad as his skill points. Had he had a good idea I would have given him a +2 on his roll. As it was I didn't have to bother with the -2. The point is, I don't require that a player have a Red Cross certification in First Aid to make a Heal check. I don't require that they be good actors or persuasive speakers to use a Diplomacy skill. They don't need to know a thing about horses to use Handle Animal or Ride. But it helps. [/QUOTE]

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